Alestorm are the main support for tonight
and I have been waiting for quite a while to get
the chance to see them play as I have heard great
things about their live shows with the pirate
gimmick taken to the extreme, people attending
in costume drinking rum and talking all pirate
like, however tonight I was quite disappointed
as the band came out in your bog standard band
t-shirts and didn’t really hit on that gimmick
as much as you’d expect with the type of
music they play. Whilst they were playing the
atmosphere and energy down in the crowd was enough
to make it extremely worthwhile but whilst the
banter had that comedy value to it, it wasn’t
really fitting with the theme to be perfectly
honest, it’s the only thing that’s
keeping me from giving them a glowing review alongside
the fact that vocalist Christopher Bowes when
he didn’t have his keyboard around his neck
didn’t really seem to know how to conduct
himself, just seemed a bit awkward. I did still
enjoy it but I would have a lot more had it have
been as over the top and hysterical as I was expecting
it to be.
Dragonforce were the first live band I ever
saw back in 2005 at this exact venue, back then
it was such an experience the energy they put
in, the layout they used for their stage and generally
the way they conducted themselves onstage. As
of late however – the last tour in particular
– the quality of their shows was slipping
– drastically, ZP seemed like he didn’t
even want to be there anymore barely bothering
to engage the audience or his fellow band members,
interest in the band at this point was also slipping
so the bands last hope is that they can rekindle
their earlier magic with a new driving force in
their latest singer. I wasn’t expecting
a triumphant return to the stage but I was begging
for a least a slight sign of improvement and that
much I got; rocking out onto the stage with new
song “Holding On”, proceeding to bang
out another 9 songs (seeing as their songs are
so long this is actually impressive) with absolute
ease! Herman and Sam haven’t missed a step
and new vocalist Marc Hudson absolutely nailed
all of his own songs and the classics; “Fury
of the Storm”, “Soldiers of the Wasteland”,
“Fields of Despair”, “Cry Thunder”,
“Heroes of our Time”, “Seasons”,
“Die By The Sword”, “Through
the Fire and the Flames” and finishing with
an unexpected encore of “Valley of the Damned”
all of which Hudson nailed perfectly note for
note and expressed a cheeky yet comedic attitude
whilst on stage, lots of confidence for a new
guy. Not a stage set up as good as they have had,
not as much energy as they would usually have
and I definitely wasn’t as into it as much
as I usually would be but one thing’s for
sure, anything’s better that how it was
a couple of years ago.
Alestorm 4/5
Dragonforce 4/5
Review By James Webb
|
